Iksar has just posted a very long chain on Twitter, pitching his idea for a new ranking system for Arenas.
To clarify something before we start – he’s NOT proposing a different matchmaking system, just a superficial score that would have no impact on the gameplay, it would just be used to compare numbers between players – for example, for leaderboards purposes.
The rating he proposes would take two things into account – your average wins and your performance with each class. The class score would be the max number of wins you got with each class, added together. Average wins would be, well, the average number of Arena wins you got throughout the season (on all classes). The final score would be the multiplication of those. For example, if you got 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 wins on five different classes (4 on average), your final score would be (2+3+4+5+6) * 4 = 80. (He also said that the final numbers would likely be x10 to be more in line with other formats, so in this case, it would be 800 not 80).
It’s a pretty straightforward system that mostly cares about two things – how many average wins you get, but also how many classes you’re good at. Classes in Arena are rarely balanced – sometimes the difference is as big as 10-15% in win rate between the worst and the best. Right now the players who land on Arena leaderboards try to pick the best classes and stay away from the bottom-tier ones. The new system would encourage some experimentation and trying to master the bad classes too because that could give you a lot of extra points. The rating would reset every “season”, which would last 2-4 months.
Long story short, nothing about the gameplay side would change – it would just add an extra number that pro players could use to compare how well they’re performing each season, and more casual players could use to see their progress and whether they’re improving (including mastering new classes they haven’t previously played).
What do you think about it? I would say that adding some kind of rating to Arena is good – all the other modes have it, just not the Arena. I’m just on the fence about class rating – on the one hand, it would encourage you to try out more classes and possibly make Arena more diverse. On the other hand, it means that the rating wouldn’t be based solely on skill. For example, a good Arena player might have a lower score than an average Arena player just because they hate a few classes and try to avoid them if possible. In other modes, the system is simple – the more you win, the better your score is. The system proposed by Iksar would have extra variables, that’s why I’m not exactly sure about it. It’s a bit as if you earned less rating in Constructed or Battlegrounds for only playing half of the classes/heroes instead of all of them – even though it would encourage more diversity, it would feel forceful.
Here’s the Iksar’s full Twitter chain (click to see more):
ARENA PLAYERS
Been trying to brainstorm what a fun ranking system could be for arena. Goals are for it to have forward progression but still have the best players come out on top.
The Pitch ⬇️
— August Dean Ayala ???? (@IksarHS) November 14, 2021
Yeah I agree. The class factor makes it bad.
Arena already has a leaderboard, which is simply the best average over a consecutive 30-run streak. The goal here isn’t to add a new scoring system when arena doesn’t have one, it’s to replace the scoring system that’s already in place with a new one.
This would be a simple change that “spices up” the Leaderboard comp without effecting matchmaking. I don’t think it changes Arena for many, but there is no downside to it.